Research Interests: studying the role chronic opioid use has on the innate immune system of people living with HIV (PLWHIV). The Lancioni lab has shown that monocytes from PLWHIV people and chronic opioid use have a heightened proinflammatory cytokine response when stimulated with LPS ex-vivo. Brent's research aims to investigate how chronic opioid use exacerbates damage to the intestinal epithelium to drive microbial translocation that trains circulating monocytes resulting in heightened and dysregulated inflammatory response to subsequent stimulation.